The traditional process currently being employed was not at a high level and instead, too vague according to JNP Capital - an independent business broking and advisory firm specialising in the sale, purchase and valuation of accounting and financial planning practices.
"With a lot of buyers, and sellers I'm not seeing a great deal of strategic planning," JNP Capital director Jason Phillips told InvestorDaily.
According to Mr Phillips all too often buyers are guilty of taking a "loose approach" rather than looking at buying an asset because it's economically affordable, there is scope to build scale, an opportunity to target a particular market or for an opportunity to a particular geographical location.
"There are less of these conversations coming from buyers as their planning is probably more general," Mr Phillips said.
Implementing a strategic plan would force buyers and sellers to formulate their ideas and intentions, he said.
"If you're going to speak to someone about buying your business, you'll need to work out whether it's the right fit to start with and then when you meet with them you need to communicate that you have the capacity to do it," he said.
"By forcing yourself to have those conversations beforehand, you're actually having more of a strategic rationale around mergers and acquisitions (M&As) at a business level."
It was vital to invest time into creating strong strategic plans, in light of the difficult financial planning environment, in order to maximise the value a seller can achieve from their business.
However, as many transactions were small businesses, they did not have a strategy team or resources to assist with M&As, Mr Phillips said.
"If you had that luxury where someone devoted themselves to strategy, you'd have a far more crystallised [plan].
"If buyers were setting out on a strategy to purchase and it was well-defined and developed, there'd be an opportunity for them to go and knock on doors. But I'm not sensing a great deal of that, it's more social and relationship-driven."
